The figure skate blade has had no major changes in over 80 years.
The current blades are made from thin plates or sheets which are 2 dimensional. The thin flat plate causes the blade to flex and bend across the entire length of the blade. The blades flex so easily they can be flexed ½ an inch or more in your hands. This flexing reduces performance.
To cover the potential market, figure skates must be in all the various sizes and types. Figure skates are conventionally provided in ¼ size increments instead of ½ size increments provided for shoes. Producing skate blades from size 7 to 12 will require the production of 20 different sizes of blades. Providing blades for a left and right skate adds up to 40 different blades that have to be produced in order to cover the market.
There are also dance blades which are made much shorter and with different teeth and as many as 70 different blades. For manufacturing standpoint this is very difficult and not cost efficient.
The lowest cost production methods for skate blades are stamping, forging, or casting. All of these procedures require expensive dies, costing as much as $200,000 each. Multiply this by the 70 different blades and this is a large investment.
Some ice skates incorporate a blade runner holder fastened to the shoe portion of the ice skate, and a blade runner mounted to the blade holder, and intended to be in contact with the ice. For some ice skates blade runners, the runner includes a thickened blade portion that is formed with a thinner base portion. The thinner base portion is typically cut from a piece of stock that forms the thickened blade portion. Once cut, the base portion is adhesively secured into a groove of the blade runner holder.
The base portion can be cut with one tool but it is very time consuming and difficult to align one side exactly with the other. The skate blade runner is typically made from stainless steel which is a very difficult metal to machine. A great amount of pressure has to be applied to cut and remove material while the piece of stock is held in a fixture. When cutting with a regular tool, such as a milling bit, machining is done on one side at a time. Problems are presented, associated with such a small thin part as the base portion. The thin base portion can bend and can break under excess pressure. Many passes with the tool are needed, back and forth, to remove the desired amount of material from the piece of stock. The piece of stock also has to be taken out of the fixture and reinstalled to machine on the opposite side. This is a costly procedure.